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DAILY 03-02-10 MD SU C5 BLACK
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010
KLMNO S C5
THEATER REVIEW MUSIC REVIEW
At Forum,
New chorale takes root, with a promise of bounty
myth and
by Anne Midgette
might in
Winter into spring, the phoenix rising
from the ashes, the idea of new life com-
ing from something that appears dead.
This was the theme of the inaugural
‘Amazons’
program of the National Master Cho-
rale, Washington’s newest chorus, at the
National Presbyterian Church on Sun-
day night. However, the past wasn’t
even mentioned. The figurative “winter”
by Peter Marks was brought about by the folding of the
Master Chorale last spring; but on pa-
After the massive bite of its seven-hour per, and in the extensive comments to
“Angels in America,” Forum Theatre re- the audience from the chorus’s director,
turns with an intriguing nibble: the 75- Thomas Colohan, this chorus appeared
minute “Amazons and Their Men,” the to be a whole new venture.
story of an egomaniacal German film di- Indeed, it doesn’t have much in com-
rector who’s made great propaganda for mon with the Master Chorale, which
JOSHUA O. HILL
the Nazis and now seeks to make great was a large, mainly amateur symphonic IN THE MIX: Thomas Colohan’s National Master Chorale performed Lauridsen, Copland, Poulenc and others on Sunday.
art for humankind. chorus devoted mainly to large-scale
If the protagonist sounds suspiciously choral works. The new National Master tended like a golden cat’s cradle of with the poetry by Howard Moss (for in- lyn Boesenberg, and generally well for
like Leni Riefenstahl — whose 1935 “Tri- Chorale is smaller, semiprofessional sound, lines interwoven and suspended stance, a rapid stream of notes like rac- the chorus.
umph of the Will” is a landmark of docu- (which cuts down on the need for re- one above the other in the nave. The ing water in a poem that was about wa- It also remained open to question
mentary agitprop — playwright Jordan hearsal time), and plans to contrast solo presentation may be a work in progress, ter freezing into ice). The choral pieces, whether the winter/spring theme was
Harrison intends his leading character to vocal music with chorale works — juxta- but the chorus itself is awfully good. by contrast — settings of poems by Rob- enough to link the potpourri of different
be Riefenstahl in everything but name. posing, for instance, Morten Laurid- The Lauridsen pieces were the center- ert Graves — allowed Lauridsen to ex- styles and flavors of music. There were
She is identified here simply as the Frau, sen’s song cyle “A Winter Come” with his piece and anchor of a program that for plore dimension and texture and create some lovely moments in the mix: “En
perhaps to allow Harrison license to choral cycle “Mid-Winter Songs” on the rest followed its theme in small a kind of seductive sound that appears Soir de Neige,” two Poulenc settings
project onto her the paradoxical attri- Sunday’s program (with the composer snatches of music by a lot of different to be a signal strength, and has helped sung by a handful of voices, offered two
butes that suit his tale, which takes place in attendance). composers. They were of a piece with make him possibly the most-performed beautiful miniature winter landscapes,
on the set of a movie Riefenstahl was This kind of contrast is just one of a their setting: contemporary, but recog- living American composer. like Bruegel paintings. Excerpts from
forced to abandon as war began. veritable laundry list of aims Colohan nizably traditional; and they showed The chorus still needs to refine its fo- Adolphus Hailstork’s “Seven Songs of
The resulting 2008 drama, as directed outlined, along with an Oscar-worthy Lauridsen, at least in this juxtaposition, cus. The idea of comparing different the Rubaiyat” showed off the chorus’s
by Michael Dove and Elissa Goetschius, speech of thanks to everyone who to be more at home in the choral idiom kinds of works by a single composer has beautiful balances, the basses dark un-
has its satisfying aspects, though it will helped launch this maiden outing. It than as a composer of art songs. potential; but in practice, the resonant der the sustained hum of the womens’
probably appeal most to a specialized cli- was a lot of talk, and a lot of ambition, to The songs of “A Winter Come,” per- interior of the church was a challenging voices, underlining the fact that how-
entele: those with an abiding interest in place on one rather slender concert. But formed by Melissa Coombs and the pia- environment for art song, though it ever the new chorus progresses, it
Riefenstahl’s life, or in how a dramatist the real test came when the actual sing- nist Mark Vogel, tended to strike and worked better for an aria from Cop- makes a sound worth hearing.
goes about illuminating the process of ing began and the taut vocal lines ex- hold a pose, sometimes slightly at odds land’s “The Tender Land” sung by Eve- midgettea@washpost.com
moviemaking. The performances don’t
come across as particularly grounded in
a period, either, and this adds a bit to an
audience’s burden.
The domineering Frau, for instance,
presents any actress with a formidable
challenge, and while Jjana Valentiner ca-
‘Southland,’ an arresting development in cop-show history
pably assumes an affected air, she may be
a little green for a part requiring so much
charismatic authority.
shales from C1 however; he favors cases that are likely diabetic who was last seen pruning red
Harrison’s well-constructed story
to get him “face time,” he says, on the flowers in his garden; a stakeout at
weaves the skeletal facts of the Riefen-
as of Tuesday night at 10, having landed Channel 5 news. Platinum Motors, where cars may not
stahl project — a film she was developing
safely on cable’s TNT. That makes it a These plotlines and character be the only luxury items on sale; and the
about Penthesilea, the mythological
step forward for basic cable, too, portraits are interwoven into an discovery of the kind of ghastly mass
queen of the Amazons killed by Achilles
because “Southland” is a show of high exciting, electric tapestry that also murder that it seems can only happen
— with incidents in the lives of imagined
caliber and riveting brilliance, instantly incorporates, of course, the stories of in Los Angeles.
and real people on the set. As the actors
one of the finest hours of TiVo-worthy the often harrowing cases that the cops The key character through which we
drama anywhere on the tube. encounter. Tuesday’s re-premiere is one experience much of the mayhem is
One of its key qualities is a more day in the life of the cops, but next novice officer Ben Sherman, played by
reasoned, less worshipful view of the week’s episode, also made available for Ben McKenzie, a young actor probably
police. “NYPD Blue” certainly had a cast preview, takes place over a number of most familiar from his lead role on that
of memorable characters, but its days — and includes a jolting scene of murky-quirky Fox series “The O.C.,” a
portrayal of cops was mostly idealized, one cop’s wife, terrifically played by glossy soap also set in California’s
and the cops were sometimes seen as Emily Bergl, having a gross encounter at “southland.” McKenzie has fortunately
unduly shackled by those pesky rules a Sam’s Club-like megastore. matured as an actor, and although the
meant to ensure the “rights of the Considerably more explosive, and character he plays is implosive rather
accused.” The show reflected a mood of unnerving, is a scene on Tuesday’s than demonstrative, he shows
heightened anxiety about crime brought episode when the simple act of trying to considerably greater range than he did
on by increased urban unrest and the give an incompetent driver a ticket before. You can sense that this kid could
1992 L.A. riots; even Hollywood liberals threatens to become a major go either way — become a great cop or
were morphing into hard-core neighborhood brawl, the violence throw up his hands and quit.
law-and-order types. escalating in a very believable way as The stories are filled with
In “Southland,” cops are human neighbors emerge from their homes. contemporary touches — cops studying
beings with flaws as well as virtues; they “Southland” gives a more vivid view simultaneous footage from four
can be petty, lazy, envious of comrades than most of its predecessors of the convenience-store surveillance cameras,
who get ahead, and even fitfully fearful. hazards, threats and daunting odds that hoping to spot a clue — and the action
EMILY LEVIN
One officer — Michael Cudlitz as John cops face every day. And because the includes such crime-drama staples as a
BOUND TOGETHER:
Cooper — has convinced himself and stress factors are more convincingly car chase or two, imaginatively shot and
Daniel
many of those around him that he’s detailed, we can understand what edited, and a chase-on-foot through a
Eichner and Jjana Valentiner.
gulping down narcotic painkillers makes some of the police officers rail yard, once a film noir staple.
describe and reenact scenes that Riefen-
because of a back injury sustained on inherently angry and suspicious and “Southland” manages to be plenty noir
stahl filmed (and later burned), we’re
the job, but he gets his pills not from a what can put entire blocks of the city on
TRAE PATTON/NBC UNIVERSAL
even with that crazed California sun
meant to absorb the complex moral dra-
doctor but from a shady-looking edge. blaring down, flooding every little
mas unfolding around her. To play Achil-
character who sometimes conducts The mingling of multiple plotlines is,
The key
corner and cranny with a strangely
les, she hires a young Jewish man (Dan-
business in restaurant men’s rooms. of course, not new, but the dense texture mocking glow.
iel Eichner), who in effect receives from
Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King, and sense of immediacy are unusually
character
The people who made and populate
her a reprieve from Nazi persecution. He
very powerful in the part) is more affecting. It really doesn’t matter if you “Southland” know what they’re doing,
falls in love with a messenger boy (Jay
short-tempered and disgruntled than missed what happened “previously on
through which
and they do it with such inventive zest
Saunders), a Gypsy whom Riefenstahl
usual because her partner, Tom Everett ‘Southland’ ”; you’re still likely to be that you might think it had never been
hires for the homoerotic role of Achilles’
Scott as Detective Russell Clarke, has pulled right in and swept away by the
we experience
done before — that this was the first cop
friend, Patroclus.
been hospitalized with very cast, the characters they play, and the show ever made, instead of just the
Hovering in the director’s shadow is
scary-looking gunshot wounds to the hard-charging style that imposes
much of the
latest.
her neglected gofer of a sister, a young
abdomen. Adams instantly despises the maximum tension on the proceedings. shalest@washpost.com
woman played by Laura C. Harris and
hot-shotty officer assigned to replace At least in the first two episodes, the
called the Extra. At the center is Valen-
Clarke, and she coldly rejects his cases depicted are varied, resonant and
mayhem is
tiner’s Frau, who casts herself as Penthe-
attempts to be friends — at least until borderline fascinating — among them a
novice officer
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM Discuss
silea. Intent on demonstrating her inde-
she sees his performance under shooting attack, in full daylight, on the all things television with critic Tom
pendence from the Nazis, she focuses her
pressure. driver of a sleek silver Bentley; the
energies on her artful costume epic, and
Ben Sherman.
Shales at noon at washingtonpost.com/style.
His motives may not be the shiniest, disappearance of an 82-year-old
as the cast members call out the camera
angles, we are reminded of her status as
pioneering auteur. The irony is that her
dictatorial devotion to the work only
seems to reinforce her kinship with the
methods of her fascist overlords.
With the help of a talented set design-
‘Parenthood’: 1989 movie’s offspring just doesn’t measure up
er, Tobias Harding, Dove and Goetschius
frame “Amazons and Their Men” as a tv preview from C1 But the first episode merely mimics enthood” is socially awkward itself,
handsomely pristine art installation, the movie: Krause is Adam Braverman, caught between an outdated “thirty-
staged at Round House Theatre in Silver and weirdly missing the tender texture the oldest and seemingly most secure of something” earnestness and a yen to
Spring. On a white floor sit a pair of boul- of its original source. the four Braverman siblings. Graham is stir some soap into its drama: You mean
ders; behind them hangs a rectangular Anyway, it’s not as though the world Sarah, mother of two sullen teenagers they don’t murder one another or wake
mountain landscape, rendered in shades lacks for heartfelt, madcap stories about and so broke that she’s had to move from comas, as on “Desperate House-
of gray. Andrew Griffin’s nifty lighting raising a brood in upper-middle-class home to live with Mom (Bonnie Bedelia) wives”? Then what do they do?
bathes this sterile movie location in vio- environs, amid all that Stickley mission and Dad (Nelson). Erika Christensen is Gather for dinner, that’s what — at a
let and other striking hues; the only dis- furniture. In the two decades since “Par- Julia, a success at her law firm but too long table and in mismatched chairs in
cordant element is the unflattering fur- enthood” the movie, parenting itself has busy BlackBerrying to pay attention to the Braverman family’s lushly immense
trimmed garb that Melanie Clark creates allegedly become more fraught with hy- her husband (Sam Jaeger) or cute Berkeley, Calif., back yard, which is
for the Frau. peractive worry, aptitude tests and so- daughter (“I want Daddy to sing me to aglow with Italian wedding lights and
Eichner alternates admirably between cial status cues that perpetually tor- sleep; I want Daddy to cut my meat” where wine glasses are always abrim
Achilles’ campy valor and the young ac- ment career moms and overzealous etc.). Finally there’s brother Crosby (Dax and frank talk pushes the plot along.
tor’s sensitive exploration of his nature, dads on the Little League field. Shepard), who is having commitment These unattainable environs of the
and Harris has some amusing moments But those things were also being com- issues with one girlfriend and has just quirky-rich (think “Rachel Getting Mar-
as a bit player who specializes in death ically observed in 1989, because the learned from an ex-girlfriend that he’s ried” or “It’s Complicated”) exist mainly
scenes. Although you could wish at times packed minivan of our family-first cul- the father of a young boy named Jabbar. to sell viewers an idea that familial bliss
for a little more dramatic oomph from ture is always about to veer out of con- “Like the basketball player?” Adam is as simple as real estate and a good pi-
some of the cast, “Amazons and Their trol. (Raising kids: It’s just so crazy!) To asks Crosby, while the audience at home not noir.
Men” gives Forum another opportunity this epic struggle, we’ve added helicop- all too ably recalls that the child was “Parenthood” looks right but feels
to show off its taste and range. ter parenting, designer fertility treat- named Cool in the movie version. empty. While dragging through the fin-
marksp@washpost.com ments and a cacophony of vicious mom- That’s the problem. Unfairly or not, ished pilot, I realized there’s already a
my blogs to sound the alarm on poison the superiority of the old “Parenthood” better and much more funny and sparky
plastic and epidemic outbreaks of As- looms over this endeavor. Same as be- show on right now that’s about a well-
perger’s syndrome. We’ve killed our- fore, Adam and his wife, Kristina (Mon- off-but-off-kilter clan of relatives: It’s
Amazons and Their Men, selves getting children into elite kinder- ica Potter), worry themselves sick over called “Modern Family,” and it’s on ABC.
by Jordan Harrison. Directed by Michael Dove gartens. their socially inept son Max’s difficulties stueverh@washpost.com
and Elissa Goetschius. Set, Tobias Harding; Or so the story goes, which is why in sports and at school. Back in 1989, he
costumes, Melanie Clark; lighting, Andrew “Parenthood” is back again as a sprawl- was just odd; in 2010 he’s placed on the
MITCHELL HAASETH/NBC UNIVERSAL
Griffin; sound, Wade Tandy. About 75 minutes. ing ensemble TV drama (executive-pro- autism spectrum, which quickly sends ALL IN THE FAMILY: From left,
Through March 20 at Round House Silver Spring, duced by Howard) that hopes to reboot the show on a path to becoming an Mae Whitman, Lauren Graham and Parenthood (one hour) premieres Tuesday
8641 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. Visit www. the premise in an updated and relevant adult-focused, after-school special. Miles Heizer in the painfully at 10 p.m. on NBC.
forumtheatredc.org or call 240-644-1100. way. On today’s television schedule, “Par- over-promoted new series on NBC.
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